Dr William M Litchman has been involved with square dancing and the American
community dance since 1957 when he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder
and became involved with the Calico and Boots Square Dance Club on that campus. This
club was formed in about 1945 by former dancers from the Cheyenne Mountain School in
Colorado Springs and were taught by Dr Lloyd (Pappy) Shaw. They brought their unique
dancing style and knowledge with them to Boulder.

In the summer of 1956 shortly before leaving Florence, Colorado, for college, he
attended a street square dance. This was his first exposure to square dancing and
it was a good experience. The caller lead the dances from the back of a flat-bed
truck parked in an alley with a band playing behind him. Townspeople gathered and
danced on the street along the block and it was exciting and unusual.

After coming to the University of Colorado, Bill found Calico and Boots and began
attending their regular Tuesday night open dances. Finding it interesting, he joined
the group as well as a modern dance club, Orchesis. Dancing in two organizations
took a bit of his time but it was something his family had never done and so it was
all new to him.

In the spring of 1957, he began to learn to call squares and joined the Calico and
Boots demonstration (exhibition) team. With them, he danced in most towns and places
in northeastern Colorado and in 1959 was chosen to be in the group to represent
the Cheyenne Mountain Dancers at the National Square Dance Convention held in
Denver that year.

After graduation from the University of Colorado, he attended the University of Utah
graduate school to pursue a Ph. D. in chemistry. During that time, he met and married
his current wife, Kristin Embry, and together they formed the Ribbons and Spurs
Square Dance Club with its demonstration team (1961). After graduation, a year of
post-doctoral work in Christchurch, New Zealand, and another year teaching at the
University of Utah, they came to Albuqerque to take a position on the faculty of the
University of New Mexico. While there, they formed the Wagonwheels Square Dance Club
with its demonstration team (1967).

Since that time, he has lead dances and taught leaders in a wide variety of kinds of
dance (various types of American square dancing, round dancing, mixers, quadrilles,
contras, international folk, English country, Scottish country, Welsh, ballroom,
swing, and some others) in most of the states of the US, some of the Canadian
provinces, New Zealand, and many European countries. He is the author of numerous
articles on dancing and dance history and specializes in traditional western square
calling and teaching. He has also created recordings of calling, and music for
squares and rounds.